Drug traffickers are “destroying” law enforcement due to the latter’s inflexibility and unwillingness to cooperate.
This is according to director of policing and risk management at the Regional Security System (RSS), Lieutenant Colonel Kerry Waterman.
He made this grim indictment recently during the closing ceremony of a three-week Drug And Gang Investigations Course at RSS headquarters, Paragon, Christ Church.
“Across the Caribbean, drugs, firearms and gangs do not exist as separate problems. They are interconnected. The same criminal networks involved in drug trafficking are often linked to firearms, violence, money laundering, corruption and other forms of organised crime. Our response therefore needs to be equally as connected.
“These guys are destroying us because they are working together. We need to work together as well. This is why the value of this course goes beyond learning individual investigative techniques. You’ve been exposed to areas such as intelligence, interviewing, interdiction, surveillance, digital forensics, handling exhibits, financial investigations, confiscation, criminal proceeds, gang structures and international cooperation. The real test now is how you’re going to apply these skills when you go back to your respective organisations,” he said.
Waterman said criminals did not respect boundaries and moved through jurisdictions effortlessly, while law enforcement agencies often got hung up on jurisdiction while refusing to share vital information.
“We need to work across the borders. We cannot work alone; we cannot work in silos. These criminals that we investigate do not respect boundaries – they don’t. And our professional relationships cannot stop at those boundaries as a result of this. We need to share intelligence. We need to preserve our relationships with our colleagues, especially the ones that you’ve met on this course. It makes life a lot easier when you know who you’re talking to on the other end. And you need to use these new regional and international networks that we now have available to you,” he said.
The director also advised the 17 graduates from around the region to be open-minded and not to ignore the importance of financially crippling criminals.
“Do not deform the evidence. Don’t allow assumptions, personalities or pressure to dictate the direction of an investigation. We all know that sometimes we get blinkered and we go down the road. Let’s always look and have the bigger picture in mind.
“Secondly, follow the money, and this is an area that we don’t often do well enough in. Arresting an individual is very important, yes, but disrupting the finances, assets and infrastructure that sustain these organised criminals can have a far greater long-lasting effect. So let them not have something to look forward to when they come out of jail,” he said.
Another important aspect Waterman emphasised was professionalism. He said it could get frustrating to investigate complex and dangerous situations with limited resources, but it was imperative to remain focused so as not to be ultimately outmanoeuvred.
“There will be times when these cases progress really slowly; that’s a fact of life. There will be some times when we don’t have the full intelligence picture. On top of that, there will be times when you need to produce quick results. And it is stressful; we get it. But what I would say is that a strong investigation isn’t just one where you get the arrest; that’s not always the most important thing.
“We need to make sure that what we do is lawful, is intelligence-led, evidence-led, properly documented and capable of the standard scrutiny, and ultimately results in a successful prosecution. Because, guess what? Those lawyers, those defence lawyers, and those criminals sometimes know the law better than we do because they’ve been through it so much,” he said. (CA)
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